I was born in New York City and raised in Chappaqua, NY in Westchester County. I always liked science growing up, but really developed an interest in chemistry in high school when we started learning the “why’s” about physical phenomena: why does mixing yeast and peroxide makes a foamy mess, why does putting a rose in liquid nitrogen make it brittle, why did the small rock that my labmate heat in a Bunsen burner spontaneously explode (my labmate got detention for this activity by the way)?

I majored in chemistry at Haverford College and decided to go to chemistry graduate school against the wishes of part of my family. I think that they felt that a professional career in medicine or law was a more proven path to life stability. I wasn’t sure what I would do with an advance chemistry degree but I knew I really liked chemistry.

I received my Ph.D. in Organic chemistry from Columbia University working with a brilliant professor, Thomas Katz, working on helical metallocenes – very novel organometallic compounds that could have uses as liquid crystals organic conductors. I’ll always feel that I owe Tom a great deal since he really taught me how to think about chemistry and science.

After a 2-year postdoc with Professor William Wulff at the University of Chicago working on the total synthesis of the anticancer agent olivine, I joined Wyeth-Ayerst Research in Pearl River, NY. At Wyeth I was fortunate to work on medicinal chemistry projects across several therapeutic areas: antibacterials, metabolic diseases, inflammation, oncology and neuroscience. Currently I’m a lab head in the Experimental Chemistry Design Group in Groton’s Center of Chemistry Innovation and Excellence. My group is working on innovative medchem design initiatives.

I feel very fortunate to be to Pfizer since I get to interact with many talented people across many scientific disciplines. I’m still just as excited about learning the “why’s’ about physical phenomena – I’m lucky that I get to do what I do for a living.